Academy Awards

Cathy_Quinn · Post by **Cathy_Quinn** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:53 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_Acade ... nd_winners

Interesting results, very dominated by No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, has anybody seen them and wish to offer an opinion?

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:26 pm

No Country for Old Men is superb.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:29 pm

I tend to wait till DVD for Oscar type stuff, opting for the blockbusters when I go to the cinema.

But I'm certainly looking forward to No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood and Juno.

Caught Atonement recently, and thought it was pretty decent.

Dead Head · Post by **Dead Head** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:43 pm

Obfleur wrote:No Country for Old Men is superb.

Truth, quoted.

IronHide · Post by **IronHide** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:16 pm

Obfleur wrote:No Country for Old Men is superb.

3rded

Was kinda unimpressed with There Will Be Blood....

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:25 pm

Just got back from There Will Be Blood. Was okay... nowt breathtaking. It's got all the qualities that normally get films lots of Oscar nods (ie long static shots of sweeping American scenery, plot driven by one guy's performance, very little resembling humour, gritty realism that borders on the boring... you know, the stuff the Academy loves).

No Country was, as previously stated, brilliant. Long sweeping shots of American countryside at sunset, but driven by three great performances, with gritty realism and actual black comedy.

I swear at times, you could film three hours of prairie desert in widescreen and get an Art Direction nomination. But only if there were some hills in the background.

Planning to do Sweeney Todd and Juno some point this week.

Got 11/24 on the Empire Online Oscars sweepstake thing. Which ain't too shabby seeing as half the categories were full of things I'd never even heard of...

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:16 am

Let me just say that Golden Compass beating Transformers was a travesty.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:19 am

My man from the Frames, Glen Hansard, and his female compatriot, Marketa Irglova, won for Best Song. That makes me happy, and also realize that I can't say "The Frames will be the next Big Thing!" anymore.

Dreadwind's Ghost · Post by **Dreadwind's Ghost** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:27 pm

Brendocon wrote:I swear at times, you could film three hours of prairie desert in widescreen and get an Art Direction nomination. But only if there were some hills in the background.

But not sunsets. The Academy hates those.

I completely agree with you, though. I tend to think of the Academy of sitting on high, telling me which films I ought to see, rather than the films I want to see.

And they're not even right half the time. Juno is a terrible film, imho. And if you look back at some of the films that have won Best Picture, well, it's embarrassing really.

Moral: make your own mind up about movies, and leave the Oscar ponces to it.

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:36 pm

I loved Juno.

Cathy_Quinn · Post by **Cathy_Quinn** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:55 pm

I haven't seen it and don't want to. If the funniest joke (which one reviewer documented) is "Juno?" "No it's Morgan Freeman." then I don't think I'm missing much. And if a "sassy" script means glamourising teen pregnancy then I guess I just misunderstood the word.

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:30 am

I liked Juno (and there's no "glamourising teen pregnancy" in the movie)

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:38 pm

Bah. Smart-mouthed bint gets knocked up and much hilarity ensues as she briefly flirts with abortion (never seriously though, lest we offend the wholesome sensibilities of our audience with anything resembling realism) before we one-liner our way to a happy sunshine ending.

Least it doesn't have Hugh Grant in it.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:45 pm

Cathy_Quinn wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_Acade ... nd_winners

Interesting results, very dominated by No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, has anybody seen them and wish to offer an opinion?

Saw both. Not impressed with either, really. I mean in terms of being Academy Award winning films. I've certainly seen better.

And I from here on out, hold the Academy Awards of very little importance, given the robbery of the Special effects award from Transformers to coke-drinking polar bears.

Just saw the documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters that wasn't even nominated. Enjoyed that more than both films above. (Impy, as a gamer, I highly suggest you watch this flick. It's about a real subculture of gamers who hold the highest scores from 1980's games, the focus being two particular guys vying for the world record on Donkey Kong. )

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:36 pm

Oh im on that, sounds cool - is that out on DVD or in the cinema?

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:33 pm

Karl Lynch wrote:we one-liner our way to a happy sunshine ending.

I know it's my main strategy for life.

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:42 pm

Yeah. And as Ob said, there is no "glamourising teen pregnancy". That's a very lazy crit. There's a lot funnier stuff than a flip line that's similar to stuff any of us would and probably have said, although humour does vary, though the humour in Juno is surely Whedonesque? I would have expected everyone here to appreciate that. The script is hardly "sassy" - such an interesting word to use to describe a text that features female characters making strong humourous comments all the time - though you can download it and judge it yourself thanks to the miracle of the intertron. There's also a decent amount of emotional resonance generated fairly honestly, IMHO.

I'm not certain how the film was supposed to deal with abortion to avoid that kind of criticism, considering the rest of its tone and intent. The kid was never going to be aborted, the film isn't constructed that way. Was it supposed to change tone for 5 minutes and go all kitchen-sink or something? I found it interesting that the film took the route of including the subject as much as it did, considering.
Anyway, I enjoyed it and came out of the theatre feeling great. And singing. Don't h8te on my singing.

Post by **Kaylee** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 7:07 pm

KingMob wrote:Yeah. And as Ob said, there is no "glamourising teen pregnancy". That's a very lazy crit. There's a lot funnier stuff than a flip line that's similar to stuff any of us would and probably have said, although humour does vary, though the humour in Juno is surely Whedonesque? I would have expected everyone here to appreciate that. The script is hardly "sassy" - such an interesting word to use to describe a text that features female characters making strong humourous comments all the time - though you can download it and judge it yourself thanks to the miracle of the intertron. There's also a decent amount of emotional resonance generated fairly honestly, IMHO.

It was described as 'sassy' as part of it's oscar nomination. And by nearly every newspaper review. I thought it was bollocks, basically. Different people, different senses of humour etc. though.

I'm not certain how the film was supposed to deal with abortion to avoid that kind of criticism, considering the rest of its tone and intent. The kid was never going to be aborted, the film isn't constructed that way. Was it supposed to change tone for 5 minutes and go all kitchen-sink or something? I found it interesting that the film took the route of including the subject as much as it did, considering.
Anyway, I enjoyed it and came out of the theatre feeling great. And singing. Don't h8te on my singing.

Rather missed my point IMO. The guardian recently ran an interesting comment which ran something similar to my POV, long story short women fought long and hard for the right to choose and there is still a threat of that being taken away, yet Hollywood's treatment of it of late is to turn that freedom into a quick joke before running the movie to it's wonderful conclusion where baby is born, everythings lovely etc (anothe recent example being Knocked Up).

It's a generically brainless teen flick, I appreciate it's unlikely to be 'reconstructed' to be anything else but that doesn't make the original product any more appealing to me.

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:01 pm

Karl Lynch wrote:It was described as 'sassy' as part of it's oscar nomination. And by nearly every newspaper review. I thought it was bollocks, basically. Different people, different senses of humour etc. though.

And do you agree that it was 'sassy'? I think that's a phrase more indicative of how the marketing machinery chooses to classify things to an assumed audience rather than the reality.

Karl Lynch wrote:Rather missed my point IMO. The guardian recently ran an interesting comment which ran something similar to my POV, long story short women fought long and hard for the right to choose and there is still a threat of that being taken away, yet Hollywood's treatment of it of late is to turn that freedom into a quick joke before running the movie to it's wonderful conclusion where baby is born, everythings lovely etc (anothe recent example being Knocked Up).

Eh, I'd rather the subject was mentioned and explored in such form, rather than ignored. Abortion is not a subject that is banned from use in humour, and adoption is integral to the story, so I was fine with the direction it took. Abortion was a mooted option for the character and not dismissed out of hand or ignored.

Karl Lynch wrote:It's a generically brainless teen flick, I appreciate it's unlikely to be 'reconstructed' to be anything else but that doesn't make the original product any more appealing to me.

Fair enough, of course, though I would still recommend downloading the script to anyone. It's not exactly American Pie 3 or whatever level writing.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:57 am

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:Oh im on that, sounds cool - is that out on DVD or in the cinema?

DVD

Let me know what you think.

Watch it soon. For soon, the only movies you will be watching are Teletubbies Great Adventure, Curious George, and Thomas the Train.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:27 pm

Don't forget Sesame Street. The episode where Kermit tries to get Cookie Monster to guess what's in the box is classic.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QYiFxGtseHw

I've watched three-quarters of Juno and I really like some things about it and really don't like other things.

Pluses: the depiction of teenagerhood seems, sans vocabulary, fairly accurate. The adoptive couple is a great part of the story. The story arc in general is a lot of fun to watch--girl gets pregnant, decides to adopt, (the difficult choice that pleases everyone except the mother--yay society) the adoptive couple falls apart--and Michael Cera is, as usual, beautifully awkward.

Minuses: I could see every scene except perhaps "I'm leaving Vanessa" coming from fifteen minutes away. Juno doesn't tell her dad about the trouble she just had with the adopters, instead she has a pat scene where she realizes she loves the father. The adopted mother is over-the-top freaky, and although I've seen my sister-in-law do some pretty weird **** when she wanted a baby that badly, it's too much. And the movie is a little too much in love with its own cleverness. Whedonesque, but in one of the more showoffy meh Buffy season-ways. Season Five quality.

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